tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56807681749771141712024-02-20T16:31:01.000-08:00Diane's History BlogAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-19050216772207825782014-12-08T12:34:00.001-08:002014-12-08T12:34:26.577-08:00Professor Petrik and Classmates,<br />
<br />
Thank you for making this course stimulating and informative! Happy Holidays! DianeAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-4937377412869192372014-12-08T12:33:00.001-08:002014-12-08T12:33:07.558-08:00Summary of Final Paper: Tamsen Donner: Martyr to Western Expansionism<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">12.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Summary of
Final Paper:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Tamsen Donner:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Martyr to Western Expansionism<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Tamsen Donner was
the wife of the leader of the ill-fated Donner Party, the emigrant wagon train that
became trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the winter of 1846 - 1847. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Facing starvation, the group is best
remembered for resorting to cannibalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Many, however, were ordinary people trying to survive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How did Tamsen Donner fit into the picture?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How had her life prepared her for such severe
hardships?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In what ways did she
respond?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does she tell us about the
Donner Party and the larger picture about western pioneer women?<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Primary sources include
early letters from Tamsen Donner and other Donner pioneers. Many tend to contradict
one another, creating a challenge for historians to identify, interpret and
reconcile disputed collective memories in order to draw conclusions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Donner was born into
an upper middle-class family in Massachusetts in 1801.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Educated as a teacher, she (unlike most
antebellum women) remained single and independent, traveling widely and
teaching school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At twenty-seven, she married
Tully Dozier, bore him a son, and thrived on family life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within one year, however, she had a
miscarriage; her husband and then her infant died; she contracted malaria.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On her own again, she struggled to overcome
her adversities, supporting herself for the next ten years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She married prosperous George Donner in
Springfield, Illinois in 1837, becoming stepmother to his children and adding
three daughters of their own.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George Donner
shared his wife's wanderlust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both were
attracted by the lure of opportunity in California, and they headed West in
May, 1846.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tamsen Donner writes of the
beauty of the plains, the immensity of bison herds, and of bartering with
friendly Sioux and Pawnee. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Against her
better judgment, her husband opted to take a "short cut" to
California. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without a trail to follow,
the party experienced wagon breakdowns in the Wasatch Mountains and thirst along
the Salt Lake flats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They reached the
Sierra Nevadas a month later than planned; in late October, early snowstorms
ensnared them near the summit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Donners survived in a primitive lean-to and ate their livestock, but food ran
out by Christmas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Weaker members of the
party<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>began dying of starvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later findings of mutilated human remains
testify to subsequent cannibalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reports
vary as to the Donners' participation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here again, collective memory confuses the issue.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George Donner injured
his hand, which became infected and led to blood-poisoning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tamsen Donner took over responsibility for
the family. In February, 1847, a search party reached them, bearing meager
provisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Donner sent her three stepchildren
out of the mountains with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Weeks
later, another rescue team arrived and took her three youngest daughters to
California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She feared she would never
see her children again, but out of loyalty or obligation, Donner remained at
camp with her dying husband.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With George
Donner's death, competing collective remembrances present another quandary about
Tamsen Donner's last days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one
iteration, she wandered into the camp of one of the last remaining
emigrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He took her in, and when she
died in her sleep he cannibalized her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, there was no trace of Donner's body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other sources speculate that she wandered
off, disoriented and starving, and perished in the wilderness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regardless of how
she died, Donner's valiant efforts and hard decisions saved her children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Based on her background, it seems unlikely (but
not certain) that the Donners ate human flesh.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Though her name has become synonymous with the cruel side of western
expansionism, she, like many other pioneer women, can be credited with making
sacrifices that eventually "won the West."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
</span></span> </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-11226570842461667622014-11-30T11:01:00.002-08:002014-11-30T11:01:49.327-08:00I commented on David's blog entry for this week.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-90624774414639764852014-11-29T19:58:00.000-08:002014-11-29T19:58:30.416-08:00Devil's Bargains
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">11.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Devil's Bargains<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am the
consummate tourist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Historical sites,
naturally, are my favorites, but I'm not opposed </span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">to</span></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> going out of my way to
glimpse, say, the world's biggest ball of twine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tourist traps, often against</span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> the better
judgments of those who run them, give visitors an essential sense of an area's
</span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">ambiance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By paying less attention to
what is written on the signs and in the brochures and more to</span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">local and "neonative"
input, it's possible to achieve a truer experience.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hal K. Rothman, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Devil's Bargain, Tourism in the Twentieth-Century American West</i>, is
not concerned whether or not tourists enjoy themselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His thrust is understanding how innovative
outside investors may destroy the very places they<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>invade, changing the areas and their
residents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although Rothman explains this
as a western phenomenon, the infusion of big money into backwoods, picturesque
locations has precedents elsewhere and earlier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Reading about the transformation of Paepcke's Aspen reminded me of David
McCullough's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Johnstown Flood</i>
(1968).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1889, a handful of wealthy
magnets created an artificial lake resort above the town of Johnstown,
Pennsylvania for their private recreation and enjoyment -- and inadvertently
devastated the downstream town and its people when their man-made dam
burst.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although most of Rothman's examples
have less dire physical repercussions, incursions into places like Sun Valley,
the Grand Canyon or Carlsbad Caverns likewise changed perceptions and interrupted
local lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wide open spaces and
untouched nature of the West made it possible for the moneyed few to take
unfair advantage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From my standpoint
as tourist, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I particularly enjoyed
Chapter 6, "Interregional Tourism."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As a child in the 1950s, I was aware of the influence of automobiles in
our lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The family car provided my
first familiarity with the glories of the western terrain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every year or so our family left Spokane for
an eight-hour road trip west to Seattle (which now takes about half that long).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We motored down the two-lane highway in Dad's
'55 Buick into the arid conditions of central Washington, a literal desert
compared to our manicured lawn at home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
tiny, colorless towns through which we passed held neither interest nor promise
for us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Crossing the Cascade Mountains
with its high peaks, lakes and waterfalls<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>invariably awed me (still does!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we reached lush, green western Washington and the blue Puget Sound,
I felt much farther from home than the 280 miles we had travelled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ride itself was the adventure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I craved, as Rothman states on
page 150, "difference </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">. . . new activities, seeing new places and doing
new things . . . travel did not have to mean anything more than an opportunity
to get away."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This past May,
my husband and I toured the Mid-West in our SUV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Missouri, we located the legendary Route
66, intending to follow it to visit old-time tourist traps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, we discovered only short,
intermittent segments of the road, interrupted by seventy-five years of modern
"improvements" that bisect and obliterate most of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>66.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
was one of Rothman's devil's bargains: its very success in opening the West to
auto travel lead to its obsolescence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-86423833960803887432014-11-23T14:09:00.002-08:002014-11-23T14:09:43.616-08:00I have commented on Megan's post about <em>Misplaced Massacre.</em> I have not posted on my blog about it, since I will be presenting in tomorrow evening's class. Stay tuned!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-66136086885301504942014-11-16T12:47:00.001-08:002014-11-16T12:47:31.116-08:00I have commented on Carol's blog entry.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-90587580495715101292014-11-15T19:51:00.000-08:002014-11-15T19:51:38.228-08:00Was the Comancheria an Empire?
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">10.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was the
Comancheria an Empire?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">November 15, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Pekka Hamalainen's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Comanche Empire </i>(2008) contends that
between 1700 and the early 1800s the Comanches conquered an expansive section
of southwestern America <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to create the
Comancheria empire that rivaled the imperialistic efforts of Europeans. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The concept of an
all-powerful empire among Native Americans seems unique, something I've not previously
considered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American history seldom
endows minority groups with such superlatives: Hamalainen obviously intends to start
a new discussion about the power and influence of the Comanches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is little question that they reinvented themselves to meet the needs of their evolving
world as they moved south across the plains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They became expert equestrians and bison hunters. They developed
outstanding economic and political skills that interplayed and vied with
Europeans who had a far more extensive history of international machinations. The
Comanches incorporated outsiders into their families and tribe, often through
slavery, to bolster their numbers and strength.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their warrior spirit and grasp of
conflict, conquest and alliances were par excellence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Eighteenth-century </span>Comanches were a vibrant, dominant,
intimidating, hierarchical, resourceful and violent people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But was their Comancheria an empire, an
example of reverse colonialism?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is tempting to
permit a sense of presentism when recalling our country's deplorable historical
treatment of Indians. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>True, most Americans
no longer accept good-cowboys-besting-bad-wild-Indians scenarios as the basis for
relationships between the two cultures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But neither have we established a firm footing or a meeting of the minds
as to who Indians were (are) or how they fit into the American landscape; the
ongoing debate over the name of Washington's football team pinpoints this quite
succinctly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New cultural approaches
encourage greater open-mindedness in the search for and acknowledgment of
greater agency in Native American cultures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But has Hamalainen gone too far in an effort to accomplish this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By elevating the Comancheria to the echelon
of empire, he detracts from the reality of an industrious people who redeveloped
their culture, suffered losses and enjoyed successes, and left an imprint on
their times. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Raising the Comancheria to
empire status inevitably leads to an overemphasis on their denouement:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the Comanche's dramatic fall from grace when Euro-Americans
overran the West, the end of the bison economy, and the crumbling of the
foundations of their indigenous "empire." <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Comanche Empire,</i> I preferred to
focus more on Comanche accomplishments and errors than on Caesarian or
Hitlerian ideologies of grand empire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The haphazard sprawl of the Comancheria across
the Southwest, for instance, did not include definitive, defendable borders of
empire -- nor did the tribe appear to need them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By absorbing people of other cultures to
increase their numbers, the Comanches evolved into an "ethnic melting
pot" rather than retaining distinct Comanche traits (360).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They participated in the destruction of their
environment; the environment destroyed them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were diplomats and fearsome warriors who "reshape[d] their
economic strategies and social traditions" (348).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Comanches
were a complex tribal group with a complex history, worthy of Hamalainen's
in-depth study. He centralizes their nation in American history, awarding them
with the recognition they deserve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
the description of Comanches as deliberate empire builders, a tribe vastly
superior to other indigenous people, somehow seems aggrandizing and
unnecessary, detracting from Comanche heritage.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-64922184336778547262014-11-09T11:48:00.001-08:002014-11-09T11:48:15.594-08:00I commented on Doug's blog entry this week.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-65400606120449348322014-11-08T20:46:00.001-08:002014-11-08T20:46:21.764-08:00If You Build It, They Will Come
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">9.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If You Build
It, They Will Come<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">November 8, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Railroaded, the Transcontinentals and the
Making of Modern America </i>(2011) by Richard White, the phrase "if you
build it, they will come" kept running through my mind.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Echoing Ray Kinsella's hopes in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Field of Dreams,</i> the railroad barons guided an industry based on
fantastical, unrealistic visions of land usage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unlike Kinsella, however, who churned up his cornfield to realize his
dream, the many Collis P. Huntingtons, James J. Hills, Tom Scotts and Jay
Cookes metaphorically dug their fields under <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">after </i>they built their railroads.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>White's scope in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Railroaded </i>seems all-encompassing. He
ties virtually every post-1865 American (and Canadian and Mexican) occurrence
-- from political, economic and social to military and philosophical -- to the
effects of railroad-building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
long-dead, egotistical barons would undoubtedly preen at Whites' assessment of
their ultimate power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the same time,
they would reinvent his well-documented criticisms of their lives and
activities to their own advantage. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>White contends
that "[W]hatever the railroads did -- rob, create, organize -- they
supposedly did ruthlessly and effectively" because "if failure could
be lucrative, then ignorance, incompetence, and disorganization were not incompatible"(233,
232). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given the breadth of railroad
construction after the Civil War, it is impossible to deny the builders' influence
-- often negative -- on the western United States.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet White suggests that railroad-building was
a ploy, a moneymaking byproduct for the garnering of untold wealth for mediocre,
reckless entrepreneurs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This infers that
if, for instance, the planting of wheat or the skinning of buffalo had had the
same lure of maximum financial success, the barons would just as eagerly have
embraced those instead.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This supposition
gives rise to "what if's." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What if other enterprises <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">had </i>swayed the railroaders away from the
indiscriminate building of thousands of miles of needless railways too soon?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would the West still have been
"won" without them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pioneers
had been traveling the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails since the early 1800s,
settling western lands years before the advent of the railroads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Great
Northern et.al. surely made the trip more convenient and expansive, but would
not such dedicated trailblazers have continued on their own, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>at a more manageable pace for region building?
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would their homesteading choices have
been any more or any less astute and well-placed than those of the railroad
tycoons? Harkening back to their western spirit of individualism, upon which
historians from Frederick Jackson Turner to Susan Lee Johnson to White himself
comment, is it possible that White bestows the railroad magnets with excessive
and undue credit/discredit for opening the West?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
intricacies of the financial dealings and economic machinations in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Railroaded</i> were sticky to follow, despite
White's eloquent explanations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
his cast of antagonistic leading characters leaves little doubt that, regardless
of their assertions of patriotism and the national interest, the railroad
barons' definitive goal was to line their own pockets.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
admit that by page 534, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Railroaded</i> left
me feeling a bit dejected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will never
look at railroad tracks quite as I did before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were not fields of dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-31043517284381390742014-11-02T05:58:00.001-08:002014-11-02T05:58:40.212-08:00I commented this week on Allison's blog.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-13956120813916627872014-11-01T06:26:00.000-07:002014-11-01T06:26:46.293-07:00Montana Memory Project: Big Timber Pioneer Newspapers, 1899 and 1916
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">8.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Montana
Memory Project:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Big Timber
Pioneer</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Newspapers, 1899 and 1916<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Early newspapers
are a historian's delight, providing provocative tastes of local life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Montana's weekly <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big Timber Pioneer</i>, reprised in the Montana Memory Project, does
not disappoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The front pages for January
12, 1899 and January 6, 1916 are snapshots in time, reflecting changes that
occurred there during that seventeen-year period.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Big Timber is the
county seat for Sweet Grass in south central Montana.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It remains a small town today, according to
its Chamber of Commerce (http://www.bigtimber.com/), with a population of 1,641.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The headline for
January 12, 1899 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(http://mtmemory. org/cdm/
compoundobject/ collection/p16013coll7/id/74195/rec/7) reads "Delinquent
Tax List for 1898."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The half-page
article names and threatens non-tax-payers: "If not paid, [your property
will be] sold at public auction."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>About one-third of the front page is devoted to ads:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cottage Hotel rates are $1.25/day,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perrine's cuts hair for thirty-five cents,
Sam Lee Laundry does "all kinds of laundry quickly and neat <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(sic) </i>done," and H.O. Kellogg's
clothing store advertises Christmas specials (three weeks too late). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The remainder of the front page contains
"The State's Latest News."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Montana shipped out 384 railway boxes of sheep in 1898.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Smith Brothers own the oldest sheep ranch
(1872) in Montana:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in 1898, 33,000
grazing acres for 48,000 sheep valued at $32,000.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No national or international news features
appear. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Big Timber still considered
itself a pioneer town in a pioneer county: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>organized, somewhat isolated and self-sufficient.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big Timber Pioneer</i> front page of January
6, 1916 (http://mtmemory.org/cdm/ compoundobject/collection/p16013coll7/id/71654/rec/12)
is more sophisticated in its presentation and includes a broader range of
news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are no advertisements here;
about half the page is devoted to local and regional news, the rest to
national, with one international article. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The headline reads "Annual Masquerade Breaks
Big Records."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hundreds of guests
met in the lodge of the Modern Woodsmen of America, a fraternal benefits
society, to dance and to enter a costume contest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prizes ranged from $5 cash to a fifty-pound
bag of Gold Medal Flour; winners' names and costumes are listed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second most important article announces
the opening of Ellison Brothers' Parking Garage "to serve residents and
tourists," featuring steam heat and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>a ladies' rest room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Besides clips
from Bozeman and Livingston, a national news item declares "Montana Leads
in Wool Production," having generated 29, 000,000 pounds of wool in 1915,
over 10% of the national total.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A small
blurb entitled "Another Ocean Liner Sunk by Torpedo" states the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Persia</i> sank in the Mediterranean with 300
people lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It provides no further
details; the editors apparently assumed readers read related articles and thus
this sufficed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although this issue is more
inclusive than its 1899 predecessor, Big Timber readers still consider local
occurrences more interesting and timely than outside news.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Big Timber Pioneer </i>front pages indicate town
and county growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 1916 page
stresses modernization and culture; news extends beyond county borders, though
local items -- even less pressing ones -- remain prominent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both issues display population diversity for
women and ethnicities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They emphasize local
growth industries and financial stability:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>information about the area's ranching, sheep-raising, forestry and town
development lead all other articles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like
most small town newspapers, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pioneer</i>
retains its parochial approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hometown
news trumps the East Coast and Europe. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-592875191438521562014-10-26T12:18:00.001-07:002014-10-26T12:18:45.423-07:00I commented on David's blog entry this week.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-43767308596082241662014-10-26T06:54:00.000-07:002014-10-26T06:54:21.128-07:00California and Reconstruction
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">7.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>California and Reconstruction<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If white southerners thought they had
problems getting the better of blacks during the Reconstruction period, they must
have been surprised by white Californians and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their</i> self-made predicaments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The bi-racial issues of the ex-Confederate States seemed to explode
exponentially in California, where whites plotted against Indians, Chinese <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> blacks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The South, of course, had a two-hundred year
head start abusing, sidestepping and legislating against blacks prior to
Reconstruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>California, on the other
hand, gave birth to triple racial confusion and biases in the relatively short
period from the middle to the end of the nineteenth century (and beyond).<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>D. Michael Bottoms skillfully engages
readers in California's racial turmoil in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An
Aristocracy of Color, Race and Reconstruction in California and the West, 1850
- 1890 </i>(2013).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nineteenth-century white
Californians expended tremendous energy to 1) keep their various racial
prejudices straight and 2) design multiple campaigns against specific non-white
groups according to complex reasoning, rationalizations and lies. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>African Americans seemed to come out
marginally ahead of other minorities in California, thanks to the Thirteenth through
Fifteenth Amendments, resulting from the sufferings of the black
race and grudgingly acknowledged (though not ratified) by Californians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Human nature can be wicked: California's
blacks were unwilling to share the fruits of their long-fought battle with
fellow minorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, they adopted
whites' sense of superiority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whites had
systematically crushed California's Native Americans before the Civil War,
leaving Indians in the unwanted position of being, to use a Pacific Northwest
analogy, last men on the totem pole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>White
Californians rated their bias against the Chinese between blacks and Indians,
creating a mythology about Asians that rivaled the inventiveness of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Aesop's Fables.</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They labeled "Chinamen" subhuman,
dirty and infectious. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the
resourceful Chinese fought back,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>employing American law to their advantage, riding on the coattails of
Reconstruction legislation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless,
California mirrored the nation well into the mid-twentieth century as they
strived desperately to maintain white supremacy, regardless of the color or
race of its minorities.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of my surname, I would be remiss
not to mention Bottoms' Chapter 2, "The Apostasy of Henry Huntly
Haight."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I checked with my
husband's Aunt Ladonna, our family genealogist, who<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>assures me that HHH and we perch on different
branches of the family tree.).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Haight
became governor of California as the Civil War segued into Reconstruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He vocalized the belief, as Bottoms explains,
that "black suffrage was . . . the first step in the inevitable elevation
of all nonwhites" (59).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Under his
leadership, California refused to ratify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Constitutional
Amendments, realizing they would pave the way to full citizenship not only for blacks
but also for Indians and Chinese.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
Haight who unwrapped California's "simple binary racial hierarchy" <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of whites versus nonwhites to reveal "a
more complicated and more ambiguous hierarchy . . . along three, or even four,
axes" (59).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Haight brought already-roiling
prejudices into open controversies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
then, there was no stopping the downward-spiraling process. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-39412136466512671272014-10-24T13:10:00.000-07:002014-10-25T05:42:54.035-07:00Primary Sources: The Women and Girls of the Donner Party<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Primary Sources:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Women and Girls of the Donner Party<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> On February 13, 1847, San Francisco's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">California Star</i> newspaper broke the news
of "a most distressing account" of the Donner party. A wagon train of eighty-three emigrants on their way to
California had been stranded all winter in the snows of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Months earlier, the party had
chosen an untested, supposedly shorter route west, travelling south across the
Salt Lake desert without water or animal feed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Being a month later than planned in reaching San Francisco, and with few
supplies left, they hurried into the mountains in late October.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Early snow storms overtook them, forcing them
to hunker down in makeshift cabins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eleven
men and five women from the party volunteered to continue across the mountains on
foot to seek aid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"After travelling
thirty days, 7 out of 16 arrived . . . all the females that started<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and but two of the men," <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>reported the newspaper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nine died of starvation en route; several of
the corpses were "eaten by their companions" for sustenance,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>making "<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">meat of the dead bodies of their companions"</i> (italics are the
<em>Star</em>'s).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost as an afterthought
to such sensational journalism, the newspaper<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>reported
that a search party was being organized to hike into the mountains to find the
rest of the Donner party. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is unfortunate that the words
"Donner party" and "cannibalism" have become synonymous in
the lexicon of the West.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> They</span> overshadow
the otherwise courageous efforts of many of these pioneers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The women and girls in the group are
of particular interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until the 1970s
and 1980s when Women's Studies took its rightful place within the discipline of
History, the Donner party women received little recognition for their heroic
efforts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using
primary sources, I will examine the Donner
"womenfolk" to uncover their backgrounds and to investigate
contributing factors along the trail that influenced their dire choices during
that long, harsh winter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope to draw
conclusions about these women based on facts from primary sources other than the
yellow journalism of the times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The families of brothers George and Jacob
Donner joined with that of James F. Reed in Springfield, Illinois in September, 1846 to head west.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were joined by several others in St.
Louis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the emigration, several people
kept diaries, including Reed's daughter Virginia, age 13.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1891 she published an article,
"Across the Plains in the Donner Party (1846)," based on her journal
entries of the transcontinental journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In it, she makes no mention of cannibalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, Virginia recalls her beloved
mother's courage in the face of adversity and her fears that her sister Martha,
called Patty, age 8, would die of starvation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Virginia recalled Patty's tiny four-inch doll, "hidden away in her
bosom, which she carried day and night through all of our trials."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The doll is now an artifact of the Donner party, part of the Sutter's Fort collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Virginia concludes the article optimistically, with a sublime description
of California: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"the blessed sun . .
. smil[es] down </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">. . . as though in benediction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I drank it in . . . in thanksgiving to the Almighty for creating a world
so beautiful."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>George
Donner's daughter Eliza was four years old when they emigrated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1911, at the age of sixty-eight, Eliza
Donner Houghton published her memoir, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>"I was too young to do more than
watch and suffer with other children," she writes, but had since completed
"eager research for verification . . . with other survivors" to
counter "the false and sensational details . . . about acts of brutality,
inhumanity and cannibalism . . . spread by morbid collectors and prolific
historians who too readily accepted exaggerated and unauthentic versions as
true stories." In thirty-six chapters and 334 pages, she provides a
feminine view of the Donner party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other primary sources include the
"eight small sheets of letter paper" <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>written by Donner party member Patrick Breen
between November, 1846 and March, 1847 in the Sierra Nevada camp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Published in 1910 as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Diary of Patrick Breen, One of the Donner Party,</i> he reports on the
harrowing experiences and bravery of the isolated party, where women assisted
and supported their neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another authoritative source is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The History of the Donner Party, a Tragedy
of the Sierra, </i>by C. F. McGlashan, published in 1880.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>McGlashan, who was not a member of the
Donner group, interviewed many of the (grown) children of the group in
over 1,000 letters of correspondence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>His book is a tribute to the bold pioneers who struggled and suffered
over deserts and mountains to begin anew in California.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The saga of the Donner party is a story
of human survival, in good part due to the heroism of the women and girls.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This iteration is not about the lurid details
of desecrating the dead at Donner Lake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rather, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it is a portrayal of
wives, mothers and sisters who, in the face of devastating loss, did their best
to keep their families alive and together.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvm5QlFvY4fks0Rbi_35kE22nKNMLyaBflgevzm8CihaYfUGB6lE4mbK9kTveUrEFowQYe-Mhghtxeby4tv_xLfaXFLsEZ5_KIcxuCsR3DTHKsZ-55ECsUUsqsMTD_rj54K056gAJIgQ/s1600/PattyReed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHvm5QlFvY4fks0Rbi_35kE22nKNMLyaBflgevzm8CihaYfUGB6lE4mbK9kTveUrEFowQYe-Mhghtxeby4tv_xLfaXFLsEZ5_KIcxuCsR3DTHKsZ-55ECsUUsqsMTD_rj54K056gAJIgQ/s1600/PattyReed.jpg" height="320" width="257" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Martha "Patty" Reed</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCmh_24F6affxpKCyV0NBgNuQo1nNyTdcfGHaq5AIbp3fSDn7RgXDtoPIt0iPhX00xkt0OuvrJ5pJPxw06B-Rim7FmgmB0nkfPq-Dy7IYDiVYCEGXw97cG8vHBrf-wQu_Q92BHxh4pu4/s1600/SF-Patty-Reed-Doll-Stand1-343x460.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioCmh_24F6affxpKCyV0NBgNuQo1nNyTdcfGHaq5AIbp3fSDn7RgXDtoPIt0iPhX00xkt0OuvrJ5pJPxw06B-Rim7FmgmB0nkfPq-Dy7IYDiVYCEGXw97cG8vHBrf-wQu_Q92BHxh4pu4/s1600/SF-Patty-Reed-Doll-Stand1-343x460.jpg" height="320" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div align="center" class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Patty Reed's Doll</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Works Cited<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Editor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Distressing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>News."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">California Star, </i>February 13, 1847.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www/sfmuseum.org/ist6/donner.html"><span style="color: black;">http://www/sfmuseum.org/</span></a></span><span style="color: black;">h</span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><a href="http://www/sfmuseum.org/hist6/donner.html"><span style="color: black;">ist6/donner.html</span></a><span style="color: black;">.</span> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accessed 15 October 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Houghton, Eliza Donner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chicago:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">A.C. McClurg and Co. (1911).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009790435.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accessed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">2 October 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">McGlashan, C.F. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>History of the Donner Party, a Tragedy of the Sierras.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Truckee, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> California:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Crowley and McGlashan (1879). <a href="https://archive.org/details/historyof"><span style="color: black;">https://archive.org/details/historyof</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"> donnerp</span>01cfmc. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Accessed 10 October 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Murphy, Virginia Reed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Across the Plains in the Donner Party (1846), a Personal Narrative</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> of </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">the Overland Trip to California."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Century Illustrated Magazine (1881 - 1906:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>San</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Jose, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">California , XLII, 3 (July, 1891).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Periodicals, </i>409. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://search.proquest.com.mutex.gmu.edu/ameridicalperiodicals/dc."><span style="color: black;">http://search.proquest.com.mutex.gmu.edu/ameridicalperiodicals/dc. </span></a><span style="color: black;"> Accessed</span> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">
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14 October <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">2014.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Teggert, Frederick J., Ed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Diary of Patrick Breen, One of the Donner Party.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>University</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> of </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">California at Berkeley (July, 1910). http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id= uc1. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>31822035083831;view=1up;seq=1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accessed 18 October 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Photographs<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Martha (Patty) Reed. "The Survivors and Casualties of the Donner Party."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>http://www.donner<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>diary.com/survivor.htm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accessed 22 October 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Patty Reed's Doll.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Sutter’s Fort Offers Visitor Enhancements & Return of Patty Reed Doll"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> November 13, 2012. <a href="http://sacramentopress.com/2012/11/13/sutters-fort-offers-"><span style="color: black;">http://sacramentopress.com/2012/11/13/sutters-fort-offers-</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> visitor</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>enhancements-return-of-patty-reed-doll/.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Accessed 21 October 2014.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-65027418914193682412014-10-20T05:20:00.003-07:002014-10-20T05:20:13.562-07:00I have commented on Beth's blog.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-66789567930169669822014-10-18T11:45:00.001-07:002014-10-18T11:45:42.238-07:00Post #6 American Capitalism Encapsulated: Chicago
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>American
Capitalism Encapsulated:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chicago<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William Cronon's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nature's Metropolis, Chicago and the Great
West</i> (1991) is a logical segue from our earlier reading of Elliott West's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Way to the West</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both authors stress the significant role of
nature in the settling of the West: natural resources were as integral to
progress as the human beings who used and/or abused them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>West and Cronon present definitive
chronological histories of their subject areas, Cronon zeroing in on Chicago
and its hinterlands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As time progressed,
the Windy City, like a cat with nine lives, recreated itself through stages of
industrialism, finances and natural resources.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Nature's Metropolis</i> reads like a novel
with intricate, twisting plots and heroes and villains; natural resources are
the protagonists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cronon walks us through
Chicago's phases of market development from eighteenth-century fur trading to
nineteenth-century real estate (1830s), railroads (1840s - 1900), <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>grain sales (1850s - ), lumber trade (1870s -
1890s), meat packing (1870s - 1930s) and white collar corporations (1870s - ).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each industry built upon the one before it to
establish Chicago as the financial capital of the West. <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Cronon documents
the city's growth through the lens of American capitalism, Chicago-style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He explores the interconnectedness and interdependence
of the growing city and its hinterlands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He examines spatial and environment theories of city expansion,
including Von Thunen's and central place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Both hypotheses, he states, are "profoundly static and ahistorical,"
concluding that the Chicago area's growth pattern was unique and thus did not
fit preconceived molds (282) .<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Chicago, the
commercial successes of each era encouraged the growth of the next, at the same
time creating rifts when one outbalanced the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While city wheeler-dealers often tried to override
the demands of country bumpkins, Cronon demonstrates that farmers and
lumberjacks and cattlemen also displayed uncanny acumen to tip the balance in
their favor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The constant give-and-take between
city and hinterlands bolstered Chicago's vibrant, healthy economy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cronon's dynamic industrialized West is a far
cry from Frederick Jackson Turner's isolated, rural West.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several of
Cronon's examples of Chicago's dynamism jumped out at me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I grew up hearing the word
"grange," but as a city girl I didn't understand its role; Cronon
clarified it for me. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The efforts of
Gustavus Swift and Phillip Armour to utilize every morsel of an animal's carcass
was both ingenious and horrifying; there is good reason to be suspicious of
Spam!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The retail empire built by
Montgomery Ward was nothing less than revolutionary<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- from a one-page flyer to a catalog-order
company that brought affordable and civilizing comfort into town and country homes
alike.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have long been intrigued by Chicago's
1893 World's Columbian Exposition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
ironic that buildings which<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>displayed state-of-the-art
technologies and revolutionary ideas were mere facades, not meant to last.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fair mirrored Chicago itself, with its
emphasis on the latest money-making projects and the disposal of outdated
ones after humans depleted the necessary resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>William Cronon covered a lot of territory in
this book, as broad and inclusive as Chicago and its hinterlands.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-42602262087625313112014-10-05T13:25:00.001-07:002014-10-05T13:25:47.049-07:00I commented on Megan's blog #5.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-7744861950671275222014-10-04T14:29:00.001-07:002014-10-04T14:29:45.512-07:005. Buffalo, a Microcosmic Story of the Great Plains
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Buffalo, a Microcosmic Story of the Great
Plains<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Elliott West brings an innovative
approach to the study of the old American West in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Way of the West, Essays on the Central Plains </i>(1995).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He discards the well-used technique of capturing
western history from a unilateral perspective -- for example, that of white
settlers or of imagining the West as one giant region.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, he formulates an inclusive strategy
to unite seemingly disparate yet vitally intermingled influences in the West.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He narrows his study to the
Great Plains, dividing the book into four sections -- "Land,"
"Animals," "Families" and "Stories." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>West not only interprets history, but also
geography, anthropology, zoology, meteorology and botany, with a bit of
literature thrown in for good measure.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unveiling the mysteries of
nineteenth-century Plains life,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>West appears
to assign equivalent efficacy to vibrant plant life, varieties of animals,
differences in people and cultural heritages (12).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Naturally, the intervention of humans, steeped
in goals towards their own ends and thoughtlessness of inevitable
repercussions, complicated the evolution of the Plains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>West gives equal footing to the responsibilities
and actions of pioneers and Native Americans, clarifying their divergent motives
and incentives as well as their intercultural exchanges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But he goes on to emphasize that humans alone
could not produce the dramatic changes on the Plains in the 1800s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Man
did not have authority over weather or wild plant life, or river sites or the instant
availability of food sources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here, West synthesizes interdependence among land,
people and animals in a very non-Turnerian view of the region.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being a cultural historian, I was tempted
to skip ahead to chapters three and four about people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless, I began reading from the Introduction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To my
surprise, the story of short and long grasses quickly engrossed me, especially
in relation to buffaloes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I came to observe
bison as critical actors in a microcosmic progression (or regression) of western
survival versus destruction, and of the connectedness of environment, human
beings and animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">West enlightened my pitiful knowledge of
bison in many ways. How the odds were stacked against those bulky, scroungy
foragers! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had not imagined buffalo
herds heading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">east </i>to find sustenance
(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">towards</i> oncoming settlers) or of neutral
Indian zones acting as buffalo havens before intertribal peace treaties made
the animals fair game -- literally (57, 61).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Demon alcohol?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is anguish in the bleak correlation between its destructive effects on Indian
families and the decimation of the buffalo population (67).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Species packing, West notes, forces all living
things to "compete for [limited] resources" (81). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It appears that buffaloes paid the price for
"evolving patterns of power" in Native American and white settler
migration (71). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bison became the unwitting
pawns of a natural environment in flux and of human avarice run amok.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Way to the West </i>with an increasing sense of humility regarding human
frailty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since time immemorial, people
have greedily and unhesitatingly grasped for that which they desire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those entering the Great Plains wanted it
all, a replication of the comfort and reliability of known places in tandem
with "finding simpler lives in land free of the past" (146).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life
is rarely static; it demands decision-making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the Great Plains, the fate of the buffalo was swept up in human error
and natural calamity.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-85001184423193458512014-09-28T11:58:00.002-07:002014-09-28T11:58:39.339-07:00I commented on Doug's post about <em>Murder in Tombstone</em>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-18201132997288203952014-09-27T07:11:00.001-07:002014-09-27T07:11:58.332-07:004. "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp"<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> September 27,
2014<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a child, I sprawled on the living
room carpet to eagerly watch episodes of the television show "The Life and
Legend of Wyatt Earp."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loosely based
on Earp's feats as Tombstone's deputy marshal, he was the hero of the Gunfight
at the OK Corral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With those memories in
mind, I tackled Steven Lubet's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murder in
Tombstone, the Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp </i>in hopes of gaining a more historically-accurate
account of this legendary character's adventures<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> Lubet does not disappoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He brings Tombstone back to life, portraying
Wyatt Earp's "tough and inflexible" approach to law with a
(questionably) "minimum amount" of force against the "rough and
lawless crowd" <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>known as Cowboys
(Lubet's capitalization) (25, f 16, 14).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Tombstone's "flush economy and relative absence of established
authority" create the perfect storm for the wild shoot-out of the Earp
brothers and Doc Holliday against the McLaury and Clanton brothers (13,
2).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But as Lubet demonstrates, teasing out
the "good guys" from the "bad" remains a conundrum.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> After gunfire left three Cowboys dead and
two Earp brothers wounded, Lubet investigates the trial (hearing) at great
length.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lawmen are accused of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>premeditated first-degree murder, but the
proceedings are overshadowed by local politics, a weak and vengeful
prosecutorial team, and two rival, biased newspapers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The townspeople take sides, too, Republicans
(Earp proponents) versus Democrats (Cowboy supporters).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The defense attorney, Tom Fitch, outmaneuvers
the disorganized prosecution by cross-examining witnesses with the then-innovative
approach of "sharp, leading questions" that tear the prosecution's case
apart (189).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judge Spicer, a Republican,
renders his decision in less than a day:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>the prosecution had not proven its case (180).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Earps and Holliday go free.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> As Lubet notes, questions regarding Earp's
innocence still remain up in the air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
presents Wyatt as a fast-thinking hot-head, a sharpshooter and quick on the
draw <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- and probably a liar on the
witness stand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did Earp enter the OK
Corral harboring a vendetta against the Cowboys, exploiting his badge to
legalize murder?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why does the feeble
prosecution insist on a first-degree murder charge rather than more believable manslaughter?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does Earp's nemesis, John Behan, distort the
facts to his own advantage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is Judge
Spicer's decision unduly influenced by elite Republican Tombstonians?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lubet does not (cannot) provide definitive
answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He leaves interpretation to the
reader.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> A few years ago I visited Tombstone and watched
a reenactment of the gunfight, complete with blazing guns, bulky black coats
and Billy Clanton's grieving girlfriend (apparently a bit of romantic inaccuracy
to enliven the Wild West theme).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the Earp TV show, notoriety trumped historical
facts in the still-Republican-leaning staged event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So-o,
given my various experiences with the Wyatt Earp legend, what conclusion have I
drawn?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can't help but admire Wyatt's
élan, but I believe he got away with murder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Further, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would change the TV
show's heroic theme song lyrics that describe him as "brave, courageous
and bold" to "impetuous, troublemaking and audacious."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would, however, leave intact the last lines
of the Wyatt Earp tune which still seem to ring true: <o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Long live his fame <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And long live his glory <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And long may his story be told."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-89481226751325117732014-09-21T14:20:00.001-07:002014-09-21T14:20:47.906-07:00I replied to Megan's post #3.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-36636816181341309262014-09-20T14:17:00.001-07:002014-09-20T14:17:42.723-07:003. Vengeance is Mine
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">3.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Vengeance Is Mine<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">September 20, 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">A "severed head" proved that
"it was acceptable to avenge themselves upon an enemy who had no
connection whatever to the one that brought them grief." (DeLay 169,
131).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you read that sentence in a daily
news blog, your first thought would be of the three western journalists
recently beheaded by the terror group ISIL.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But this is a history blog.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
"barbarians" in question are American Indians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In both these instances, separated by almost
two centuries, the responses of western civilization to terrorist attacks are
very much alike:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fear, revulsion, anger
-- and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>incomprehension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">War
of a Thousand Deserts, Indian Raids and the US-Mexican Border </i>(2008)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, </i>Brian DeLay gives equal credit (and discredit)
to mid-nineteenth-century Indians and settlers in the history of the
Southwest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along with the voices of
white and Latino pioneers, DeLay speaks for historically silent Native
Americans, presenting succinct rationales for their warlike behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Comancheria region of Mexico, pioneers
considered the death-and-destruction response of indigenous people as vastly disproportionate
to simple immigrant acts of settling new lands; they saw Indians as indiscriminant
terrorists. DeLay, however, describes natives living out their ancient
political, economic, religious and social conventions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each group saw their enemy as prey; neither
viewed their opponents as individuals, but rather as the Other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 200%; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">The private and public aspirations of
Indians comingled, "bound up in concerns of wealth and poverty, honor and
shame, and life and death."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did
not occur to the settlers that Native Americans might "promote a value
system that bestowed communal legitimacy and honor upon men's pursuit of glory
and wealth" (119).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, they
attached sanctity to their own western beliefs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The idea of definitive, functional Indian cultures would undoubtedly
have struck whites and Hispanics as ludicrous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">Yet as DeLay points out, Indians' needs
and desires were as human and inviolable as those of westerners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The opposing forces had more in common than
either imagined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Comanches felt the
usurpation of their land and the loss of their comrades as keenly as Mexican
settlers felt attachment to their farms and to their murdered kin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Recovering the bodies of slain warriors was
as important to Native Americans as a Christian burial was to settlers
(132).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both groups craved violent revenge
and acted upon it; if Indians arbitrarily plundered and killed, settlers
responded with equal savagery by dismembering and scalping their enemies
(128).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither side perceived the human
frailties -- indeed, the humanity -- of their adversary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither was willing to sacrifice their way of
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;">Mexican President Anastacio Bustamante
declared that Indians "are not similar to us, except in their human shape."
DeLay suggests that Indians "were perhaps like Beduins" (157).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
unintended prescience likens El Presidente's comment about American natives to
our own reaction to ISIL revolutionaries today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Most contemporary westerners cannot fathom<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the attitudes of Middle-Eastern radicals, any
more than pioneers discerned Native American mentalities in the 1800s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The misunderstandings go (and went) both ways . . . a distressing symptom of why
history tends to repeat itself . . . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-77481555286569928842014-09-15T06:42:00.001-07:002014-09-15T06:42:20.506-07:00Regarding Posts #2, I commented on David McKenzie's blog.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-3395948855148423772014-09-13T16:14:00.000-07:002014-09-13T16:14:22.103-07:00
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">2.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Real
</i>West Please Stand Up?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;">September 13,
2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Frederick Jackson Turner led the charge to
define the West in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Frontier in
American History</i> (1920).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
explanations of the westernization process remained in place until the 1980s
when historians began to question his tunnel-visioned ideals of individualism,
exceptionalism and democracy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In her
"Claims and Prospects of Western History:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A Roundtable " (2000), Virginia Scharff<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>asks historians to "start a discussion .
. . about the uses and limits of the West as a category for analysis"
(26).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since the West <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is</i>, in my opinion, a viable region of
historical study, Maria E. Montoya's query in the same article seems more
pertinent:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"[H]ow can we . . .
think of the West as an exceptional space that creates 'democratic, free
individuals''' if we exclude "larger conversations about colonial
encounters, imperialism, and incorporation?" (43).<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Growing up in Washington (the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">other</i> Washington), Turner's West made sense
to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I loved the wide-open spaces
where I played (good) cowboys and (bad) Indians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My middle-class family and friends were
descendants of western Europeans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I took
for granted the presence of nearby Fairchild Air Force Base and corporate
establishments like medical centers and railroads that served the Inland
Northwest; wheat fields surrounded us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It did not occur to me, as William Deverell
points out in "Fighting Words:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Significance of the American West in the History of the United States"
(1994), that neither my experiences nor Turner's myth alone characterized<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> the</i> West.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps more than in other regions, diversity
is a western hallmark:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>power and
dependence, pioneers and federal government, nature versus human industry,
differences in time, space and circumstance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>"[N]o single seamless narrative," according to Deverell,
" . . . can possibly be truthful" (203 - 204).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is interesting, as David M. Emmons
posits in "Constructed Province:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>History and the Making of the Last American West" (1994), that
eastern power elites propagated Turner's legends of "hard-working,
independent people [getting] a kind of divinely granted second chance" in
the West; undoubtedly, the image of rugged individualism sold better than that
of drudging wage-earners (451, 455).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
Scharff's piece, James P. Ronda analogizes the West's "garden in the
grasslands" to Thomas Jefferson's "rural paradise" at Monticello;
in reality, it often masked "the hazards of farming life" (27).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Obviously, there were many Wests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The authors in this week's readings offer
a plethora of factors affecting the development of the West.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Turner emphasizes settlement of the prairies,
"tides of alien immigrants," and democratic excellence (210, 277,
318).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deverell debunks stereotypes and highlights
realistic diversity (195, 205).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Emmons<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>divides the West into
eight subregions, underscoring mining and timber interests, ethnic diversity,
and "what the West . . . did to the people" (449, 445, 457).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Scarff's<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>roundtable, John Mack Faragher states that local western history must be
viewed in the context of global history (29).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the same piece, Kathleen Underwood asks us to incorporate
interdisciplinarity into western history to encompass post-colonial and
cultural studies (40). Based on such varied perspectives, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this week's class discussion promises to be
energetic and enlightening!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5680768174977114171.post-29889512007689398242014-09-06T06:32:00.001-07:002014-09-06T06:32:17.913-07:001. The Legacy of Conquest
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Patricia Nelson Limerick's<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;"> The Legacy of Conquest, the Unbroken Past of the American
West </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;">(1987)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"> One
of Patricia Limerick's goals in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Legacy </i>is
an investigative evaluation of the roles of non-whites in forging western frontier
history (6).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She takes aim at Frederick Jackson Turner's emphasis on
"ethnocentric and nationalist . . . white men stars" as the
definitive characters in the making of the West (21). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Limerick breaks through that barrier expansively,
including Indians, Latinos, Chinese, Japanese and others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless, she occasionally lapses into
the trap of viewing ethnicities through the less-than-objective white lens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While she draws attention to minority cultures,
points of view and development, she sieves them through the apparatus of white
motivations. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
fascinated by her interpretation of Native American culture and of the Indian
response to white intervention in Chapter 6, "The Persistence of
Natives."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Limerick attempts to step
into figurative moccasins to better understand the Indian perspective (181). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She articulates that Indians were not, as
whites viewed them, tabulae rasae<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>in
need of Americanizing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She validates the
presence of long-held Indian cultural beliefs while demonstrating ways in which
whites -- unable or unwilling to accept them -- persisted in foisting white paternalism
upon the native population.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With magnanimity,
whites maintained the pretense of "helping" indigenous people by
removing them, setting them apart, providing them with minimal government
subsidies, and constantly changing the "rules." <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whites rationalized this as benign and
positive compared to the horrendous conditions white southerners imposed on
black slaves and ex-slaves.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"> Yet Limerick seems to backtrack at times,
reverting to white narrative rather than pursuing the Native American
viewpoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, the white voice speaks
louder than the Indian's. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps playing
the role of devil's advocate, Limerick explains how whites considered tribalism,
not white intervention, "the main force of oppression in Indian life"
(196).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To counter Native American
"obstinacy" and to bring forth Indians' latent but desirable
"inner white man," <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Limerick
describes how the US Government plunged ahead with lopsided propositions like
the 1830 Removal Act and the 1887 Dawes Act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She delves into the consequences of these actions on whites, but wastes little
ink on the beliefs of Indian advocates like Chief Joseph or Crazy Horse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, she devotes three-plus pages to white
reformer John Collier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Collier, a
would-be friend of the Indian, promoting the retention of their traditional ways,
nonetheless swings the emphasis back to whites: Americans, he wrote, suffered
when they didn't "put Indian people back on their feet [to] instruct and
redeem their conquerors" (201).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fairness
to Limerick, Indians (like slaves) left far less written evidence of their ideologies
than prolific whites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She leaves open a gap
for interpreting Native Americans in much the same way we study slaves, using
resources like narratives and oral histories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Post-1987 research hopefully contributes to more balance.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"> Despite my concerns, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Legacy of Conquest</i> fulfills its ambition, starting a new
conversation in the examination of minorities in the West.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Almost thirty years after <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Legacy</i>'s publication, that dialogue continues.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13646114175196791296noreply@blogger.com2